HOW WE DO "Our intent was never to sell music," says Thes One. "It was to make music. All the rest of this has been a by-product. We're just doing us."

Nine out of 10 rap legends prefer People Under the Stairs. (The holdout is a crackhead.) That's no joke — in my hundreds of interviews with dudes who brought the noise and funk before the big ship sunk (circa 1997), California underground heroes Thes One and Double K have been as popular a subject as the exploitation of old-school luminaries.

"The first time that I ever spoke with someone who I considered larger than life was on April 1 in 2000," says Thes. "I got a phone call from Biz Markie, and I didn't even believe that it was really him, because it was April Fools Day. All of those guys are like superheroes to me — they always will be. When I was a kid, their posters were on my wall, so to find out that I'm even on their radar is huge. It's emotional, even."

Major accolades hardly stopped at that phone call from the Biz. A few years later, at a CMJ showcase, Public Enemy #1 Chuck D jumped on stage during a PUTS performance and proceeded to rap their praises to the crowd. Needless to say, the pair had to pinch each other to be sure they weren't dreaming.

"I like to think we're one of the few groups out that these guys hear and think that everything they did actually had an influence on a younger generation and that it wasn't all for nothing," says Thes. "Because I'm sure that when those guys hear the new hip-hop, they're like, 'Damn — we did all that work back then and now look at this.' "

PUTS, who come to the Middle East next Thursday, have prevailed for a decade with no gimmicks whatsoever. They're about as brick-and-mortar as hip-hop outfits get, with beats that go boom-bap and acrobatic lyrics reminiscent of Run-DMC, Hieroglyphics, and Organized Konfusion. Sometimes their tracks dish resounding messages; sometimes they don't. But their every last cut is in complete character, never moving one scratch to pleasure market trends. As for their live shows — wear a diaper, because you won't want to break for potty.

"It's always shocking to me that anyone is following us," says Thes. "Our intent was never to sell music — it was to make music. All the rest of this has been a by-product. We're just doing us. It's amazing — every time I see the younger generation get attached to one of our old songs, I feel like something that we've done really is bigger than the average song that just gets posted up on MySpace."

Their appeal has even reached beyond the basement. Matt Groening tapped PUTS — along with Phish, Moby, and the Harlem Gospel Choir — to tweak The Simpsons theme song for this past Sunday's 20th-anniversary episode. That said, not everyone's a fan. Last year, the hacktacular Pharrell Williams blasted Thes after the latter's beat bumped a Neptunes cut as the title track for the skate movie Street Dreams.

Did you hear me? The putz responsible for "Drop It Like It's Hot" dissed him.

Ghost stories For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.

Wanting more After its triumphant traversal of the complete Béla Bartók string quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Borromeo Quartet was back for a free 20th- and 21st-century program at Jordan Hall, leading off with an accomplished recent piece by the 24-year-old Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairuz, Lamentation and Satire.

The future is now Even with all the promise of the new year ahead, it's hard not to feel a little stiffed in the Future of Mankind department. Here it is, 2010, and there's nary a flying car to be seen.

Swing, etc. The music may suffer plenty of economic slings and arrows these days, but it's still full of thrills galore. As usual, it's looking outside of its orthodoxy for invigorating ideas. Here are titles you truly need.

Beyond Dilla and Dipset With a semi-sober face I'll claim that hip-hop in 2010 might deliver more than just posthumous Dilla discs, Dipset mixtapes, and a new ignoramus coke rapper whom critics pretend rhymes in triple-entendres.

Local flavor Local journalist and acclaimed hip-hop scribe Andrew Martin has corralled a flavorful roster of Rhody-based rap talent on the Ocean State Sampler , 10 exclusive tracks available for free download.

John Harbison plus 10 Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.

Best in their field The jazz scene continues to struggle — along with everyone else — through hard times.

Royal pain Jesse Lortz is always ready to lay something heavy on you. As the primary architect and male half of Seattle indie-folk troubadours the Dutchess & the Duke (who come to T.T. the Bear's Place this Sunday), he spent their 2008 debut, She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke , contemplating loneliness, disgust, and death.

CZARFACE SOARS ABOVE THE CLOUDS | February 11, 2013 This week 7LES and Inspectah Deck drop Czarface , a full-length work of adventurous genius revolving around a metal-clad protagonist who feeds on destruction.

THE BPD ADDS INSULT TO INJURY | February 05, 2013 At times, this kind of decision makes you wonder whether the BPD is saving its best awards for officers who've been involved in the death of civilians.